Female garda suffers broken finger in raid on cartel gangsters

The female garda, who is aged in her 20s, suffered her painful injury when a thug attempted to flee his flat as officers raided it. Photo: Stock

A young female garda suffered a broken finger when she was involved in drugs searches targeting low level members of the deadly Kinahan cartel.

The incident took place at lunchtime on Wednesday at the Basin Street flats complex in the capital's south inner city, when heavily armed members of the gardai's Regional Support Unit (RSU), backed up by local gardai, targeted criminals.

In a new garda initiative codenamed Operation Respite, officers raided three homes and made one arrest.

Small quantities of crack cocaine and cannabis were seized, along with €700 in cash.

The female garda, who is aged in her 20s, suffered her painful injury when a thug attempted to flee his flat as officers raided it.

It is understood that the garda, who is based at Kevin Street Garda Station, broke her finger when she tried to stop the young man from fleeing.

He was later arrested by a number of armed officers.

It is understood that undercover officers earlier made a "test purchase" of crack cocaine before the raids kicked off.

"Even though there was not major amounts of drugs or money seized in these raids, this is all about putting pressure on criminals who are sourcing their drugs from the cartel," a senior source said.

Dangerous

"The fact that a young garda was injured and armed gardai were required for the operation shows just how dangerous these criminals are," the source added.

The Basin Street flats complex has been the scene of several raids in recent months by gardai investigating the activities of the cartel.

This included raids in September, when Spanish police were present alongside gardai after gangland criminal James Quinn (34), who is from the flats, was arrested in southern Spain by police investigating the murder of Gary Hutch in September 2015.

This was the murder that started the deadly Hutch-Kinahan feud.

There has also been major tension in the Basin Street flats since the murder of local thug Philip Finnegan, whose body was found in remote woodland near Carbury in Co Kildare on September 2 last year.